WASHINGTON – After historic midterms, when they helped Democrats recapture the House of Representatives, women of color are moving fast to leverage their newfound political clout for the 2020 presidential election.

They're hosting a presidential forum – in a bold move to get national candidates to recognize their influence – while ramping up get-out-the-vote efforts and preparing more women to run for Congress.

“There’s never been a moment for women of color in politics like there is now,'' said Aimee Allison, president and founder of She the People, a national network. "It’s kind of like there’s a big awakening.”

After years of complaining that national political parties have not done enough to fund their turnout efforts or to support black female candidates, some groups are raising the money to do it themselves.

“We are demanding a return on our voting investment," said Glynda Carr, co-founder of Higher Heights, which supports black female candidates and more black political involvement.

That has paid off.

“We have seen women step up in the entire political ecosystem. It’s not only running for office. We see women step up and running campaigns, being the press secretaries, being the finance director," said A’shanti F. Gholar, political director at Emerge America, which trains Democratic female candidates. “We have also seen women start several organizations that support candidates, which is extremely important because we know not every woman is going to want to run for office.

Turning to the national stage

To take advantage of the national attention, She the People will host a presidential forum in Houston in April – the first by a group led by women of color.

"I’m excited and also recognize how much is riding on the success of this,'' said Allison, who plans to announce participating candidates as soon as this week.

Whether candidates attend could show how important it is to court women of color.

Organizers said they scheduled the forum early in the campaign cycle to establish the group as a political force. Holding it in a red state was also intentional.

The South and the Southwest, which have diverse populations, will be fertile ground for Democratic candidates.

“For men and women (candidates) of various races, they all need to win women of color,'' Allison said. "They have to make their case.”

The group plans to hold a town hall this spring in Virginia to focus on state races. Virginia is a crucial state for Democratic presidential candidates.

Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civil Participation, and other women attending the Black Women's Roundtable conference March 14, 2018, talk to reporters outside the U.S. Capitol.(Photo: Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY)

“It’s very important for women of color to be heard given the political environment that’s going on there," Allison said. “We had no idea that Virginia was going to be Crazytown.”

The presidential forum and other events hosted by women of color are part of a movement across the country, said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

“There’s an energy in communities of women of color to do everything possible to have a greater voice and to make sure they are not taken for granted,” Walsh said.

One early indicator of that power will be who shows up for the presidential forum, Walsh said.

“Democratic presidential hopefuls who ignore the power of the votes of women of color do so at their own peril,” she said.

Holli Holliday, president of Sisters Lead Sisters Vote, said her organization will host listening sessions starting in May for leaders of black women's groups.(Photo: Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY)

Other groups demand an ear

Sisters Lead Sisters Vote, a group formed last spring, plans to partner with She the People for the presidential forum. The group plans listening sessions with black female leaders to discuss get-out-the-vote campaigns and demands from candidates.

"We’re not going to just be voting for people just to be voting for people," said Holli Holliday, president of Sisters Lead Sisters Vote. "We’re going to try to let folks know where people stand for real and not just rubber-stamping people.”

This week, the Black Women’s Roundtable will hold a summit in Washington, in part to discuss its strategy for the 2020 presidential election.

The group will send questionnaires to presidential candidates and follow up with meetings with their campaigns.

“We decided we need something in writing, so we would have something to leverage once people are elected,” said Melanie Campbell, convener of the roundtable.

Campbell said her organization hasn’t heard from presidential candidates.

“We’re not waiting on anybody to acknowledge us,” she said.

Before he opted not to run for president, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, tweeted, “You can't be a human being who's awake and not understand that black women are the heart of the Democratic Party.”

Black women key to Democratic wins

Black women, who trend Democratic, have long been active in their communities, playing key roles in the civil rights movement and helping to get neighbors, family and fellow church members to the polls.

Zora Neale Hurston, born on Jan. 7, 1903, in Eatonville, Fla., died on Jan. 28, 1960, in Fort Pierce, Fla. After her mother died when Hurston was just 13 years old, the budding author found work as a maid for a traveling theater group. She attended Barnard College on a scholarship. Between 1934 and 1948, she published four novels, the most famous of which was "Their Eyes Were Watching God." GNS

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Audrey Rowe, a former administrator for Food and Nutrition service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (left) during the White House African American Policy Forum in Jackson, Miss., June 13, 2012. Rogelio V. Solis, AP

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Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, D-N.Y., is seen in this 1971 file photo. Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and an outspoken advocate for women and minorities during seven terms in the House, died, Jan. 1, 2005, a friend said. She was 80. AP

Melanie Campbell, president, National Coalition on Civic Participation, speaks to a reporter on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 15, 2015, as a group of civil rights and religious leaders protested the delay of a vote to confirm Loretta Lynch to be Attorney General outside the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. Lauren Victoria Burke, AP

Monifa Bandele, project director of the Unity Diaspora Coalition, gives a speech on participating in the 2010 census at a Haitian Independence Day celebration at the House of the Lord church in Brooklyn, NY on Jan. 09, 2010. Brian Harkin, for USA TODAY

Students, left to right,Matthew Walker, Peggy Alexander, Diane Nash and Stanley Hemphill, eat lunch at the previously segregated counter of the Post House Restaurant in the Greyhound bus terminal on May 16,1960. This marked the first time since the start of the sit-in that Negroes have been served at previously all-white counters in Nashville. Gerald Holly, The Tennessean